NCJ Number
86441
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 26 Issue: 2 Dated: (1982) Pages: 177-187
Date Published
1982
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This essay suggests a model for the privatization of corrections, the entrusting of current government corrections responsibilities to competitive private agencies, so as to render corrections more cost effective.
Abstract
Under the proposed model for the privatization of corrections, practitioners would be trained and qualified as professionals in this sphere, much as doctors and lawyers are trained and licensed to perform in their spheres. The courts would assign offenders to the most cost-effective private agencies, with performance being determined by the percentage of clients that recidivate. Fees would be paid by the government to the private agency or practitioner as long as clients remain crime-free. Such a system does offer possibilities for fraud, as have other government programs that have involved payment to private agencies. The payment for performance could be so adjusted as to reduce the gain from malfeasance, and disciplinary action should be specified. Fraud committed by an individual practitioner should result in that person's disbarment. Fraud by an agency would be more difficult to discipline, since it might be difficult to separate the guilty persons from the innocent. Still, the only way that corrections can become more cost effective is to inject the profit motive into corrections services. Eighteen references are listed.